Please note: Applications for both Queensland and multi-state grants-in-aid should be submitted via the NHMRC Project Grant peer review process. The final funding decision for The Cancer Council Queensland grants-in-aid remains with The Cancer Council Queensland.

The Cancer Council Queensland invites applications from individuals or research teams for grants in support of research projects in all aspects of cancer.

All applicants should carefully read the following instructions, as failure to follow them could prejudice the success of an application.

Tobacco industry funding
Persons who are applicants for, or in receipt of, tobacco industry funding are not eligible to apply for, or receive funding from, The Cancer Council Queensland. Staff of institutions receiving funding from the tobacco industry will also not be eligible to apply for, or receive funding from, The Cancer Council Queensland. A declaration signed by a responsible officer of the institution that the institution is not in receipt of tobacco industry funding will be required.

1. What sort of research can be funded?

The work to be funded must relate to the causes, prevention, diagnosis or management of cancer.

A grant proposal is sufficiently cancer-related that it can be considered for funding by The Cancer Council Queensland if any of the following are true. The proposal aims to:

1. Test clinically a means of diagnosing cancer or assessing cancer risk in an individual, and the major health focus of the study is cancer;
   
2. Test in a pre-clinical model a means of diagnosing cancer or assessing cancer risk in an individual, and the major health focus of the study is cancer;
   
3. Test clinically a treatment/therapy/intervention for cancer or for management of a problem experienced by cancer patients as a result of their cancer, and the major health focus of the study is cancer;
   
4. Test in a preclinical model a treatment/therapy/intervention for cancer or for management of a problem experienced by cancer patients as a result of their cancer, and the major health focus of the study is cancer;
   
5. In the community or a defined group, evaluate determinants of risk of cancer, or interventions that might reduce the risk of cancer, and the major focus of the study is cancer risk;
   
6. In animals or laboratory work define molecular or cellular mechanisms leading to, or preventing, malignant transformation of cells;
   
7. In animals or laboratory work define the molecular or cellular basis of actions of therapies used, or proposed for, treatment of cancer or of complications of cancer;
   
8. Examine the psychosocial consequences of cancer at the individual or community level; or
   
9. Examine the effectiveness or optimisation of delivery of cancer services to the community.

The Cancer Council Queensland’s policy is to support particular research needs as they emerge, and to support worthwhile research which may have difficulty in receiving funding in terms of priorities set by other funding agencies.

Please note: The research priority areas for The Cancer Council Queensland for grants commencing in 2009 are: categories 1,3,5,8 and 9.

2. How long will a grant-in-aid last?

Grants-in-aid are offered each year to support research over a period of one to two years.

3. How much money is available for a given grant?

The average grant funding amount is $82,000 per year, for two years.

Grants are provided on a one-line basis and are paid in quarterly installments to the recipient’s host institution on receipt of a tax invoice.

Recipients of ongoing grants are required to submit a progress report for the previous year to The Cancer Council Queensland by January 31.

If it should be decided to terminate a project before the end of a calendar year, notification of the anticipated date of termination should be made to the Secretariat, Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of The Cancer Council Queensland. Funds remaining after the completion of the work should be returned to The Cancer Council Queensland.

4. Who can apply for funding?

Applications will be accepted from appropriately qualified researchers who will be conducting the research at a host institution in Queensland. The institution can be within a university, affiliated to a university or major hospital, or an appropriate independent medical or scientific research institute.

The Cancer Council Queensland supports about 20 new project grants each year. To ensure The Cancer Council Queensland fulfils its aims of supporting cancer research across a broad base in Queensland, and to give new investigators an opportunity for funding, The Cancer Council Queensland has established rules concerning the holding of concurrent project grants from The Cancer Council Queensland and other national and international funding sources including TBCF, ARC and NHMRC. The first named chief investigator is responsible for making sure these rules are followed. Grants which do not comply with the rules will not be considered for funding.

1. No proposal of The Cancer Council Queensland will be considered for funding which would result in ANY of the named chief investigators on the proposal holding more than two concurrent grants from The Cancer Council Queensland. Please note, this means if a person already holds one grant from The Cancer Council Queensland as a chief investigator (whether or not they are first name chief investigator), only ONE application which includes that person as a chief investigator will be considered for funding in the current round. Any grant applications with a named chief investigator already holding two concurrent grants from The Cancer Council Queensland will not be considered. This does not include multi-state grants where Queensland is not the lead state. An investigator can be an associate on any number of grants, provided an appropriate time commitment is given to each.
   
2. Chief investigators are only eligible to receive funding for one grant per round on which they are listed as the first named chief investigator.  If a first named chief investigator submits more than one grant application, only the highest ranked application will be considered.
   
3. The Cancer Council Queensland grants are not regarded as supplemental grants for projects funded from other sources. If a project grant substantially similar in aim is funded by another granting body, then The Cancer Council Queensland grant will not be offered or, if already funded, will lapse if the other grant is taken up.
   
   If application to, or funding by, another body is not declared and subsequently comes to light, this will be taken into consideration, not only in judging the current application, but also when considering any application in the NEXT round.
   
4. Funding for research is increasingly provided as programs, held by multiple principal investigators, and covering a research field rather than a specific project. The Cancer Council Queensland acknowledges that such programs represent the highest quality research, and that they are rarely funded at a level sufficient to ensure full productivity of the chief investigators. To accommodate this, The Cancer Council Queensland will allow applications in the field of a Program Grant from a chief investigator on the program, or a person whose salary is met from a program - provided they comply with rules 1, 2 and 3 above.
   
   However The Cancer Council Queensland will fund no more than ONE grant in the field of a program grant for any chief investigator on the program, or investigator funded by the program, at any time. An investigator who is a named chief investigator on a program may therefore be a chief investigator on one grant in the area of the program, and may additionally be a chief investigator on one grant which is not in the area of the program.

5. Policy in relation to carry-over of funding

• Grant recipients may delay the start of the grant period by up to three months to allow time to find appointees to positions. The administering institution should inform The Cancer Council Queensland by February 28 of the date of commencement, if a grant is to commence later than January 1 of the year of award.
• Grantees are expected to expend funds within the period of the grant, but are not required to spend allocated funds evenly through the grant period. For grants of more than one year, carry forward of funds for up to one year is automatically permitted upon notification that this will occur.
• Upon request by the date of termination of the grant, up to 20 per cent of the funds granted for the final funding year of a grant can be carried forward for up to six months from the date of termination.
• Any funds not expended by the end of the grant funding period, or if carry forward has been requested, by the end of the six months carry forward period, must be returned to The Cancer Council Queensland.

6. What is the role of the host Institute?

The host institution guarantees the infrastructure necessary to support the research will be available.

The explicit support for, and commitment to, the application by the host institution is therefore an essential prerequisite. The host institution also provides the administrative framework through which applications are received and payments made.

7. Use of funds

Grant funds are provided by The Cancer Council Queensland to the Institute for appropriate research-project-related expenditure, as determined by the chief investigator named on the grant application. Institutional management and infrastructure costs are not to be supported by a levy on granted or expended The Cancer Council Queensland funds. Evidence to the contrary will preclude consideration of any future application from that institution.

8. Publications arising from grants

The Anti-Cancer Council of The Cancer Council Queensland encourages the publication of results and other information from research funded by The Cancer Council Queensland. Such publication would occur through the normal acceptable scientific channels and The Cancer Council Queensland funding which has been provided must always be acknowledged. However The Cancer Council Queensland prohibits the use of such results and information being used by other fundraising organisations other than the administering institutions to solicit donations. Administering institutions must acknowledge the support of The Cancer Council Queensland in such instances. If such action does occur without reasonable explanation, the research grant involved will be terminated.

9. Your obligations

A short explanatory abstract which could be understood by an informed lay person is required early each year for inclusion in The Cancer Council Queensland annual report. A list of works published or accepted for publication under the grant in the current or previous year is also required. The Cancer Council Queensland will notify grant recipients annually of the due date for this report.

10. Patents and/or commercialisation

The Cancer Council Queensland acknowledges that intellectual property may be generated by The Cancer Council Queensland grant holders during the conduct of work funded in whole, or in part, by The Cancer Council Queensland, and endorses the NHMRC's policy on intellectual property in which ownership and commercialisation rights are seen to belong to the institute to which the grant is made, as promulgated in the NHMRC policy document 'National Principles of Intellectual Property Management for Publicly Funded Research' May 2001.

The Cancer Council Queensland has a duty to its donors to ensure recognition of its involvement in any work that is commercialised, and therefore requests that: in any licence granted by the institute, or its commercialisation arm, to a patent covering IP generated in whole or in part with funding from The Cancer Council Queensland, a clause is inserted that requires the licensee to ensure any product produced, which, but for the licence, would infringe the patent, carries a statement on the packaging or wherever the patent protection is acknowledged to the effect that "Development of this product was funded in part by a grant from The Cancer Council Queensland".

11. How are awards of grants decided on and what criteria are applied?

In general terms, the criteria for award of grants-in-aid and multi-state research grants are: relevance to cancer; The Cancer Council Queensland's research proprieties (see 1 above); excellence; the value of the research; and a capacity to successfully complete the research proposed in the application. The track record and standing of the key personnel, and the infrastructure support available at the host institution, will be important but will not be determinative on their own. Recent entrants to the cancer research field should feel confident that applications will be carefully considered and assessed on their merits.

12. Information specific to multi-state grant applications

Eligibility
Multi-state research grants are for national epidemiological or clinical studies involving patient or participant recruitment from at least two states. A chief investigator must be named for each participating state with the chief investigator for the whole project as the first named chief investigator. The first named chief investigator’s state is the home state for administration purposes.

Funding
Multi-state projects compete for the same pool of funds as state-based projects in each state. Each state Cancer Council will only provide funding for the project costs associated with their state’s participation. Applicants are advised to make themselves aware of the funding criteria in each state, as there are variations in both the amount and duration of funding offered.

13. How to apply for both Queensland and multi-state grants-in-aid

Applications for both Queensland and multi-state grants-in-aid comprise of:

1. The NHMRC application form, which is to be submitted to the NHMRC.

2. The Supplementary Questions document, which is to be submitted to the Cancer Council Australia's National Cancer

    Research Grants Secretariat.

The NHMRC application

The NHMRC application form (Informed Filler Document) is to be submitted to the NHMRC in accordance with their guidelines.  Applicants should visit NHMRC for an outline of this process, and to access the form. 

A number of options will be available on the NHMRC application form for choosing which funding body (or bodies) your application is to be submitted to, including The Cancer Council Queensland.

The supplementary questions

In addition to the NHMRC application, you will need to complete a set of supplementary questions, which will be submitted as a pdf to the Cancer Council Australia's National Cancer Research Grants Secretariat (Josie.Italia@cancervic.org.au).

The supplementary questions document is available on The Cancer Council Victoria's website, here.

Complete the supplementary questions adhering to The Cancer Council Queensland guidelines which follow:

Supplementary question 7: Relevance to the causes, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of cancer.

   State which of the criteria for cancer relevance, as listed in section 1 above, is applicable to your project and justify this

   (½ page maximum).

Supplementary question 8: Specific state criteria.

   State whether your application falls within one of the The Cancer Council Queensland priority research areas, as listed in  

   section 1 above, and if so, which of the priority area(s) does your application fall within.

Answer all other supplementary questions as indicated on that form.

Please note: Multi-state grant applicants should adhere to the guidelines for The Cancer Council of the home-state of the first named chief investigator, bearing in mind the funding limitations for The Cancer Council in each state from which funding is being sought. Individual Cancer Councils will only fund work conducted in their state, and applicants should clearly specify how much is being sought from each state and how the funds will be utilised within each state.

Submitting

After completing both the NHMRC Project Grant application form and the supplementary questions, submit your application to your institution’s research administration officer by your institution’s due date. The supplementary questions need to be submitted as a separate PDF file.

More information about the application process is available on The Cancer Council Victoria website.

14. Schedule

Intending applicants need to be aware of the following dates:

15. Enquiries

For enquiries about completing the NHMRC project application form contact:

NHMRC GrantNet Help Desk
Phone: 1800 500 983
Email: grantnet.help@nhmrc.gov.au

For enquiries about The Cancer Council Queensland’s criteria or completing the supplementary questions contact:

Alicia Svensson
Secretariat, Medical and Scientific Advisory Sub Committee
The Cancer Council Queensland
Ph: (07) 3258 2313
Email: aliciasvensson@cancerqld.org.au